President Anura Kumara Dissanayake addressed the inaugural session of the 10th Parliament of Sri Lanka today. Following are 11 key points from the President’s Government Policy Statement;

An interim Standard Account Bill will be presented to the Parliament in December. The Budget 2025 will be presented in February next year.

Through next year’s Budget, the government will increase the allowance of the Aswesuma Social Benefit Programme and salaries of the public sector employees.

Through next year’s Budget, the government will provide allowances for purchasing school supplies.

The IT Sector workforce will be increased to 200,000 aiming to increase IT-related exports to US$ 5 billion per year.

The government expects to sign the third staff-level agreement on the External Fund Facility (EFF) of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by this Friday (23 Nov).

The President emphasized that there will be no place for racial politics or religious extremism in Sri Lanka again.

The President said economic benefits should be fairly distributed among the people and market monopolies will be abolished.

The President said an efficient public service will be created for the benefit of the people.

The President warned that everyone, including politicians and executive officers, must act according to the laws.

The President vowed that those guilty of corruption would be punished according to the law and the victims would receive justice.

The President said a Task Force will be created to carry out the Clean Sri Lanka programme.

Following a joint programme initiated by the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) and the Department of Examinations, four candidates who were unable to reach their examination centres due to floods in Matara, were transported to their respective centres with the assistance of the Sri Lanka Army and the Sri Lanka Navy, Examination Commissioner General Amith Jayasundara said.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Monday it has approved a USD-200-million loan to modernise Sri Lanka's power sector infrastructure, improving network reliability and supporting renewables integration.

Speaker Ashoka Ranwala said investigations will be held into the condcut of Jaffna District Independent MP Archuuna Ramanathan in Parliament last week to ascertain whether he had resorted to any indisciplined or unethical behaviour.

Former Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe said his successor Anura Kumara Dissanayake should fully implement the “vision document” adopted with India last year.

A Sri Lankan fishing trawler, was seized by the Maldivian Coast Guard after it was found carrying over 450 kilograms of illicit drugs. The haul included 344 kg of crystal methamphetamine (ICE) and 124 kg of cocaine.

The Irrigation Department has issued a prior flood warning in several areas from November 25 to November 28, 2024 due to the current low-pressure situation in the Bay of Bengal and its possible further developments within the next few days.

Only the invigilators will be allowed to use mobile phones in the examination centers during the 2024 GCE Advanced Level (A/L) examinations which is scheduled to begin on Monday (25).

The Local Government elections will be held at the beginning of next year, said Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism, Vijitha Herath.

Former Election Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya’s residence in Ambalangoda was robbed, and items valued at approximately Rs. 300,000 stolen, police said. Deshapriya’s wife lodged a complaint with the Ambalangoda Police regarding the incident.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) reached a staff level agreement with Sri Lankan authorities, paving the way for the next tranche, for US$ 333 million, of the four-year Extended Fund Facility.